Adolescents need ongoing opportunities to think deeply about what honesty and integrity mean to them and to help them align their choices with their beliefs. Debbie Silver shares ways to counter cultural and classroom messages that might make kids feel it’s okay to cheat.

Every summer educators ask these questions: (1) How can we lessen summer learning loss? and (2) How can we help build students’ SEL skills? Sarah Tantillo and Meredith Murray share the story of a Summer Bridge program and some useful resources to address both questions.

Given what we know about the adolescent brain, is it realistic to attempt to teach middle school students how to manage their emotions and use their best knowledge and judgment? Emotional intelligence expert Dr. Maurice Elias says it’s not only realistic but imperative.

We may assume that by middle school children have developed social skills, but this is often the age when they need to work on grounding activities the most. Carla Tantillo Philibert and Peggy Collings offer 4 tips to make SEL part of everyday teaching and learning.

If bibliotherapy is an effective way to ease the growing pains of adolescents, writes 7th grade teacher Laurie Lichtenstein, The Outsiders is “the gold standard of therapy in middle grades literature.” It’s the only whole class novel she teaches each year.

Helping students believe in themselves is a critical part of teaching. Consultant Barbara Blackburn shares strategies to help encourage students to reach beyond the limitations they sometimes feel and pursue their dreams. One idea: Write a personal “theme song.”

Owning Up, a 6-9 SEL curriculum developed by Rosalind Wiseman in partnership with AMLE, can give young people the capacity to understand their individual development in relation to their peers and the skills to be competent in the social conflicts they experience.